The present invention concerns an operating terminal of an agricultural machine with computer hardware and computer software for operating the electrical and/or electronic functions of the connected agricultural machine.
Operating terminals of the aforementioned kind are disclosed, for example, in the publications DE 20 2008 007 912 and DE 20 2012 006 899. An operating terminal may be an agricultural terminal that is fixedly installed in a tractor or a self-propelled work machine or that is retrofitted into a driver's cabin for operating the tractor, the self-propelled work machine and/or an implement. The implement may be a towed agricultural machine, an agricultural attached implement, or an agricultural sensor. An operating terminal can be used for control of functions of a self-propelled work machine or a tractor as agricultural machines, or the operating terminal is used for controlling a different type of machine to be retrofitted to a tractor or carrier machine. The operating terminals are not only produced and programmed by manufacturers of self-propelled work machines or tractors but also by manufacturers of attached implements, for example, baling presses, mowing devices, turners, swathing devices, sowing devices, fertilizing and spraying devices, machines for working the soil, and the like so that, by means of the operating terminal and the application software installed therein, functions of the self-propelled work machine, a tractor, or an attached implement can be controlled.
In connection with agricultural machines there is the problem that frequently they can be operated optimally only by use of additional application software. The operating functions of this application software surpass the functional range that the software programs with application software, installed by the manufacturer in the operating terminal for operating the electrical and electronic basic functions of the respective agricultural machine, offer. The additionally required application software may concern the areas of logistics, documentation, business management optimization, or precalculation for configuration of the agricultural machine. Also, assisting application software such as chat, email or navigation programs are popular.
The operating terminals which are put on the market by the manufacturers usually are closed systems in regard to the computer software and only the software programs installed by the manufacturer can be run on them. A retrofitting installation of application software of external manufacturers that supplements the package of application software installed by the manufacturer is not possible, in particular for safety reasons. Accordingly, the utilizable functions of an operating terminal are limited to functions that the manufacturer has provided by installation of manufacturer's application software on the operating terminal. Accordingly, the possibility of expanding the functionality of the operating terminal for the customer by retrofitting installation of application software is not available. Accordingly, the agricultural machine cannot be operated with maximum efficiency and additional devices must be installed on the agricultural machine for running the corresponding application software when the desired function is to be utilized during operation of the agricultural machine. Therefore, it often happens that several operating devices are installed adjacent to each other in the driver's cabin of an agricultural machine, for example, adjacent to the operating terminal of the tractor manufacturer another operating terminal for an attached machine, a navigation device, and a data logger for documentation and accounting purposes, even though it would be possible to cover all functions with the hardware of a single operating terminal.
It is the object of the present invention to further develop the operating terminal such that it provides the possibility of retrofitting, installing, and running application software beyond the manufacturer's limits, beyond the configuration with computer software at the time of delivery, without the operating terminals being impaired with respect to the function predetermined by the manufacturer. A further object of the invention is to enable parallel operation and simultaneous execution of safety-critical and safety-uncritical application software on an operating terminal. A further object of the invention is finally to enable development and installation of application software substantially independent of the target platform, i.e., the concrete operating terminal, with the goal of fast and risk-free migration.